1. Field of the Invention
This invention is related to harnesses, and more particularly to a harness system for carrying a baby carrier.
2. Description of the Related Art
In general, when a parent moves their infant child from one location to another, the parent usually carries the infant in a baby carrier. The infant typically weighs approximately 6 to 20 lbs. during the time it remains in the carrier. As the infant grows, it gets heavier. Consequently, the weight of the infant plus the weight of the carrier over time becomes very cumbersome for the parent.
As the parent's arm becomes fatigued due to the weight of the carrier, the parent attempts to compensate by raising the shoulder on the side of the carrier to maintain the carrier—further applying more stress and discomfort on the neck, shoulders and back—or by switching arms used to carry the carrier. As the weight of the carrier and child is unevenly distributed, the parent may lose his or her balance as a result of either action taken and fall, thereby sustaining injury. As the parent falls, it is likely the parent may lose grip of the carrier resulting in the carrier and child being dropped causing injury to the child.
There exist in the art several different kinds of carrying devices. However, those used in connection with baby carriers actually loop around the carrier bar of the carrier rather than permanently anchor to a fixed location. These carrying devices tend to freely slide along the length of the carrier bar during use by the parent or user. Such uncontrolled and sporadic locomotion of the strap on the carrier bar poses a hazard to the user. The strap may unexpectedly slide hard against the user's hand with sufficient force to disengage the hand (holding the carrier bar) from the carrier bar resulting in the carrier being flipped over or dropped and causing injury to the child. Further, if the strap on the carrier slides away from the user (e.g., the portion of the carrier bar farthest away from the user) and the user attempts to pull the strap back to the original location, rather than sliding back, the strap may pull on the opposite side of the carrier causing the carrier to flip toward the user and harm or injure the user, the user's hand and/or possibly even the child.
There is a need for a sturdy, robust, light-weight, and easy-to-use harness system that includes a harness assembly with adjustable shoulder and waist straps to evenly distribute the weight of a baby carrier and child across the user's body. There is also a need for a harness system having an anchoring assembly that fastens directly to and is permanent anchored at a single fixed location, e.g., on the carrier bar of a baby carrier, and which provides dual engagement points for the attachment of the harness assembly to prevent the carrier from tipping over or being dropped and thereby increase the safety of the child and the user.